The summer of 2007. A young Kanye West was riding high in the charts and foot and mouth was sweeping the nation. In cricket, an India team featuring Rahul Dravid and RP Singh was touring England and enjoying a certain amount of success.

Harking back to those halcyon days, India’s selectors have called up RP Singh to replace Zaheer Khan, while 38-year-old Rahul Dravid has been recalled to the one-day side. Dravid hadn’t bothered to tell anyone that he didn’t want to play one-dayers any more, because he presumed he was never going to get picked again. He will therefore retire from that form of the game at the end of the series, having dutifully played out the embarrassing misunderstanding.

After India’s five-match one-day series in England, they almost immediately host England for a five-match one-day series. We too would quite like to do a Dravid and retire from cricket halfway through.

It’s an awful comparison. In 2007 I was at Trent Bridge watching England struggle to 169 for 7 on Day 1. Fast forward to Day 1 of the 2011 Trent Bridge test – at seven down England were nowhere near 169.